A 28-year-old woman who died after leaning out of a train window dies when she was hit by a branch, am inquest has heard.

Charity worker Bethan Roper was travelling home on a Westcountry train after visiting a Christmas market in Bath on December 1.

She suffered serious injuries after leaning out of a train window and being hit by a tree or branch between Bath and Keynsham. She was pro pronounced dead at Bristol Temple Meads station.

An inquest has been at Avon Coroners' Court in Flax Bourton.

Her father Adrian said: "She was beautiful in every way. Our pain couldn't be sharper or more justified, but I know that her goodness and fullness of spirit will live on in our hearts and actions."

British Transport Police, the Rail Accident Investigation Branch and the Office of Rail and Road are all investigating. The inquest will resume in March 2019.

A spokesman for BTP said a day after the incident: "We were called at around 10.10pm following a report a woman had received serious head injuries while travelling on a train between Bath and Keynsham.

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"Officers from British Transport Police attended along with colleagues from Avon and Somerset Police and South Western Ambulance Service, but despite their best efforts the woman died at the scene.

"Our investigation remains at an early stage, but initial inquiries suggest the woman may have been leaning out of a window when she suffered a blow to the head."

The spokesman said her death was not being treated as suspicious.

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Miss Roper, from Penarth, South Wales, was working for the Welsh Refugee Council at the time of her death, having graduated from Cardiff Metropolitan University in 2013.

The charity, a sister organisation to the UK-wide Refugee Council, works to help asylum seekers and refugees in Wales.

She was also a campaigner and chairman of Young Socialists Cardiff, and gave a speech in Cardiff earlier this year arguing asylum seekers' right to work and receive education were being ignored by the UK government.